February kept me nice and busy, and it looks like March is going to do the same! I’m so excited to be seeing some incredible theatre this month!
The Fiancée – The Chekhov Collective
The Fiancée, (also known as The Betrothed) was Chekhov’s last completed short story before he died from tuberculosis at the age of 44, and yet it is considered one of his most optimistic stories. The story finds Nadya, a young woman who is engaged to be married, something she has dreamed of for years. Her wedding is only a few weeks away but when Sasha, a distant relative comes to visit, her life begins to unravel.
Performed by the illustrious Susan Coyne (Stratford Festival) as Nadya, Brenda Robins (Soulpepper) as the Narrator/Marfa Mikhailovna/Father Andrei, David Storch (Crow’s Theatre) as Andrei Andreich/Alexander Timofeitch, with Rena Polley as Nina Ivanovna and directing the stage reading.
Wednesday March 1- Saturday March 5, 2023 @ 8pm
Saturday March 4 + Sunday March 5 @ 2pm
Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen Street East
https://www.thechekhovcollective.com/page-to-stage
Behind the Moon – Tarragon Theatre
In a Mughlai restaurant in Toronto, a late night visit from a mysterious stranger rattles the cage and shatters the peace. Now Ayub must face reality, the family he’s left behind, and the dreams he’s abandoned, all while keeping the restaurant clean to a mirror shine.
From award-winning playwright and author Anosh Irani, Behind the Moon is an achingly beautiful story of love and loss, freedom and faith, the meaning of brotherhood, and how we begin a new life.
February 21 – March 19, 2023
Tarragon Theatre, Mainspace (30 Bridgman Ave)
https://www.tarragontheatre.com/plays/behind-the-moon/
RUBBLE – Aluna Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille
A dramatic imagining of the celebrated poetry of Mahmoud Darwish (translated by Fady Joudah) and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, in RUBBLE a mother and her family in Gaza receive a courtesy call: “You have 58 seconds to leave your home before an explosion. Run.” From this point on, we travel backwards through time, through a siege spanning 2000 years. In a theatre, broken but not abandoned, hear the voice of late Palestinian National Poet Mahmoud Darwish and examine the urgent question: what is the meaning of poetry in the midst of war? What is our responsibility as we read, write, hear, and witness the survival of the human spirit in poetry?
Directed by Aluna Theatre’s Beatriz Pizano, RUBBLE features a performance ensemble that includes Roula Said, Lara Arabian, Parya Heravi, Sam Khalilieh, and Yousef Kadoura. Pizano is joined backstage by scenographer Trevor Schwellnus, costume designer Negar Nemati, sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne, and associate video designer Avideh Saadatpajough.
February 25 – March 18
Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, 16 Ryerson Avenue
https://www.passemuraille.ca/22-23-season/rubble/
Dressed as People – a Triptych of Uncanny Abduction – Perry Riposte Productions
Winner of the 2021 Ottawa Fringe Online Audience Choice & Outstanding Solo Performance awards, Dressed as People – a Triptych of Uncanny Abduction finds a school haunted by troubled children; an encounter with the unknown on open waters; the mysterious disappearance of a friend in the woods. Three dif- ferent characters, time periods, spine-tingling tales of paranormal abduction and the intrusion of the uncanny into the lives of those who are taken, those who do the taking, and those who are left behind.
Multi award-winning theatre creators and horror and speculative fiction writers team up for this chilling new show from the producers of the smash hit, The Elephant Girls. These internationally renowned, queer, Canadian, fiction writers now tackle writing for the theatre. The three monologues that make up Dressed as People are:
Kelly Robson, “Skinless”
In 1989, while teaching Canadian Literature at a university in Edmonton, a nun reveals her past as a young instructor at a haunted school full of troubled children in 1950s Ireland.
Amal El-Mohtar, “The Shape of My Teeth”
In 1827, a woman reflects on her best friend’s mysterious disappearance in Mortimer Forest on the Welsh border. She refuses to be left behind.
A.M. Dellamonica, “Repositioning”
In 2021, a seasoned entertainer on the lesbian cruise circuit grapples with memories of an encounter with the unknown in 2018, on a Pacific Ocean repositioning cruise headed to Vancouver, B.C. from Sydney, Australia.
March 7th – 18th
Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen Street East
http://parryriposte.ca/productions/dressed-as-people/
Fairview – Canadian Stage and Obsidian Theatre
In FAIRVIEW, the Frasier household is preparing for Grandma’s birthday party, but not everything is as it seems. Beverly is holding on to her sanity by a thread, refusing help from sister, her brother is MIA, her husband doesn’t seem to do anything right, her daughter is late coming home from practice and the party guests are more than unexpected. A radical examination of power, FAIRVIEW confronts notions of theatre, race, and surveillance.
This Canadian Premiere production is directed by Tawiah M’Carthy and features an ensemble that includes Peter N. Bailey, Sasha Cole, Jennifer Dzialoszynski, Jeff Lillico, Colin A. Doyle, Chelsea Russell, Ordena Stephens-Thompson, and Sophia Walker. M’Carthy is joined by a creative team that includes costume design by Rachel Forbes, lighting design by Logan Cracknell, set design by Jawon Kany, and sound design by Miquelon Rodriguez.
March 4 – 26
Berkeley St. Theatre, 26 Berkeley St.
http://www.obsidiantheatre.com/season/fairview/
Buster Canfield Performs Eldritch Evocations with Cards – Eldritch Theatre
Step right up! A night of wry sorcery, thaumaturgy and old time marvelosity, inspired by the ghoulish wonder of the Eldritch Theatre Tarot Deck.
Miracle Monger, and mystical charlatan, Buster Canfield will astound and amaze you with a night of vintage black magic, performed entirely with playing cards and nefarious spirits drawn from the Goblin Universe for your entertainment and edification. Eleven incontrovertible miracles shall be performed before your astounded and unblinking eyes, while you giggle in gobsmacked wonder!
Bring your change purse, because you too can bring home the wonder of divination with the unique Eldritch Theatre Tarot Deck, on sale before and after the show!
March 23 and 24
Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen Street East
A View from the Box 